At three in the morning in London, a heavy fog hung like a thick shroud, wrapping the entire city tightly in its embrace. Streetlamps cast dim, yellowish halos, struggling to carve out hazy patches of light in the mist. A black carriage raced past, its wheels clattering sharply and urgently against the cobblestones, shattering the dead silence of the night.
Inside his detective agency, Linton sat at a desk piled high with documents, studying a file on an old case by the flickering candlelight. The kerosene lamp on the desk suddenly sputtered a few times, and the shadow cast upon the wall swayed with it, as though some unspeakable thing were peering out from the darkness. Right at that moment, a sharp, urgent knocking sounded at the door.
"Come in!" Linton put down the documents in his hand and stood up to straighten his slightly wrinkled shirt.
Chapter 246